Community council chairman comments on current issues

Brian Johnstone, chairman of Kintore and District Community Council presents his update of news from the community council.

At the October CC meeting we were advised that it looks that, following considerations on how the application was processed, the Gateway Kintore application for inclusion in the LDP, will be re-presented to the Infrastructure Services Committee's meeting on 27th November.

Hopefully it will be approved second time around and deliver the opportunity for the developer to bring the much needed facilities to Kintore.

The latest plans for the East Kintore development will be presented to the Area Committee on 4th November, it will hopefully outline their proposal for Community Facilities.

The council advised that the land purchase for the new primary school has gone to a compulsory purchase order and is currently with the Scottish Office for Approval.

No doubt you will have seen the press, where on of our local councillors was chasing the Education Department for a decision regarding the A96 Secondary schools. Hopefully this will include a recommendation for an Academy in Kintore.

A meeting in August discussed the Town House refurbishment and options for its future use.

In its current condition there is no scope to utilise the upstairs for public access, due to having no disabled access and little space for the installation of a lift.

It was therefore decided to approach Malcolm Fraser Architects of Edinburgh for their opinions on what could be achieved with the building currently and potentially in the future.

The Roads department are to further review the scope of works defined to include disabled access to the lower floors and advise on the costs.As the building was used as a temporary prison cell Geoff Marston suggested a possible use might be a police museum or similar.

Given the links with Romans, Neolithic and Agricultural history another idea was to use the building as a historical museum displaying relative artefacts. At present the lower floors are let to the Council Media Department and on a formal lease to a private company and a wish was expressed that it should be used for community use rather than commercial.

Funding options were to be investigated and the next meeting will be held October / November.

We are putting the finishing touches to the arrangements for the first Kintore Fireworks display for around 20 years. With a much appreciated fire display kindly given by Pyromancy at no charge.

To help fund this first year we received contributions from McDonald Properties Ltd., ESD, Castleglen and STATS Group and have promises from other contributors still to come in. Kintore Rotary are holding a Casino night in November and have promised a share of the proceeds to finance part of next years fireworks.

We have had fantastic support from local businesses providing:- the loan of a barbecue (Harry Fraser Catering), Portaloos by Nixon Hire, Oil drums for bonfire by Bains Coaches, Portable lighting and generator by Travis Perkins and Nixon Hire and a lot more, too many to mention.Support from the Scouts, Rotary and other “friends” in our community.

A fantastic effort and kindness by all which is greatly appreciated.

As there is a substantial cost of putting this together it is hoped there will be significant contributions from general public on the night.

The new household waste recycling scheme has been launched and will hopefully be of benefit to all residents as well helping the Council Reduce its landfill volumes.

We are delighted to report that we are engaging a study to research what Community Renewable Energy opportunities can be considered for Kintore.The idea is that a renewable energy project, similar to what was done at Udny, could deliver significant annual earnings for community use. The Scottish Government fund this and we will report in due course what the study finds is possible in our area.